


Vienna Drabbles

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Vienna Blood (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:33:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23734663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: Various drabbles written to explore Vienna Blood
Kudos: 4





	1. Freudian Analysis

Max Liebermann watched as his notes about Amelia Lydgate burned, leaving nothing but the ashes. Why was it, when all normal fiancés would spend their time thinking of the one they were engaged to, he could think of nothing but Amelia and would forget about Clara for hours? Had his studies and work at the mental hospital left him, like his patients, out of his mind? Or was it the pressure from his family to conform which was forcing him to rebel? According to Freud there had to be an external force which was causing him to behave this way.


	2. Partners

A few years ago, had anyone asked Oskar Reinhardt why he was happy to partner with Max Liebermann, he’d have said his insights into people’s behaviour was useful, which was why he was prepared to put up with him. Now that Max had gained not only a greater understanding of the human mind, but had lost the cocky confidence of youth, replacing it with the quiet confidence of experience, Oskar found his help invaluable. And, since the higher political echelons didn’t care for either of them for neither was a respecter of rank, they knew they had each other’s backs.


	3. The Stadtpark

Amelia Lydgate enjoyed walking in the Stadtpark in Vienna whenever she could. No matter the time of year, she could almost guarantee somewhere she would be able to find ornamental shrubs which were in flower. She made a note of the ones she liked the best, with the intention that, when she returned to England, she would have a garden of her own where she could grow them.

Sometimes Max Liebermann would walk with her, but he scarcely seemed to notice the plants. She liked his company, but he didn’t feature in the plans she was making for her garden.


	4. Mechanical Toys

It wasn’t often Max Liebermann found himself in the department store, but on this occasion he had been driven there by the need to buy a birthday present for his mother. One, his sister had informed him sternly, which would help assuage the grief he had caused her recently.

As always, he gravitated to the mechanical toys which were on display. He thought again about how such toys reflected so much of life: everything beginning well and then winding down. Except with toys, winding them back up required no more than a key, but people’s needs were rather more complex.


	5. Max's Belief

“We all wear disguises,” Max Liebermann said to Oskar Reinhardt. The detective gave him a strange look, and Max continued, “Not in the way you’re thinking about, wearing workman’s clothes so you won’t be noticed. But we keep hidden from each other what our true personalities are. We want others to think that we are, for example, sophisticated, and so we disguise ourselves with an air of sophistication, and are seen at all the best places, but catch us at home and you would find us happily eating peasant food. It’s still a disguise and often a very effective one.”


	6. Impossible Questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for dark themes

“Would you say Bauer was of sound mind when he committed the crime?” Oskar Reinhardt asked Max Liebermann. “Because if you do, he will face the death penalty.”

Max went to answer, but Reinhardt held his hand up and continued, “And if you don’t, there will be questions as to why he was released from hospital, when he was supposedly under your care.”

“I’m prepared to face those questions.”

“And are you prepared to go to trial when the prosecution claim you knowingly let out a dangerous man, and therefore should be charged as partially responsible for the victim’s death?”


	7. Termination

“Dr Liebermann,” Professor Gruner said, “your position within this hospital is terminated with immediate effect. We cannot afford another scandal like the one Bauer has caused.”

“But,” Max protested, “I was exonerated by the court. They said I could not have anticipated the level of deception he employed.”

“Had you followed standard hospital procedure instead of being determined to pursue your own aims, this would not have occurred in the first place. You are therefore dismissed.”

“I had understood I was at liberty to employ the methods I had outlined to you. Clearly it’s not just Bauer who practices deception!” 


End file.
